The house we lived in during my early years still exists. I looked it up on Zillow. 1,000 ft² with 8 people in it. (That explains a lot of the chaos.) My sisters shared the attic and my room was essentially a closet up there, complete with the slanted ceiling (roof.) I still remember melting crayons in someone's 1950s E-Z Bake Oven in that cubby hole.
Ditto on the outhouse, no running water, and baths in a galvanized tub with water heated on top of a wood cookstove. I did that for the first six years I lived in the mountains. I used kerosene lamps and had one Aladdin I used for reading due to brightness. The sad truth is I chose to do this at age 24 until age 30. I can't blame this on my folks, it was all my doing.Those are great pictures, Beth!
I think I may have say this before somewhere. The house I grew up in for the first 10 years of my life did not have running water, or an indoor bathroom. We had a covered porch with a cistern and water pump to pump up the water for drinking, cooking, bathing, etc. We had an outhouse.
We took a bath in one of those big round galvanized metal tubs. My mother would heat water on the stove and fill the tub for bathing. We had a big galvanized bucket that we kept filled with water. It had a big dipper or ladle for dipping out a drink of water. We didn’t have a phone either. It was a very nice big old farm house without all that.
My dad finally put in a full bathroom in the house and running water. I thought we were uptown then! Over the years, I have learned a lot of people my age have never experienced growing up in a house without indoor plumbing, or a phone. They looked at me like I must have been a hillbilly growing up.
I do NOT like using an outhouse, nor having running water for bathing, cooking, drinking, etc. And….I always try to send up a big “THANK YOU” to the Universe for indoor plumbing every now and then.
Any of y'all ever have to wear bid overalls? I hated those awful ill fitting things.
Anyway I feel at home here with all you former hillbillies.
Good morning to all-Ditto on the outhouse, no running water, and baths in a galvanized tub with water heated on top of a wood cookstove. I did that for the first six years I lived in the mountains. I used kerosene lamps and had one Aladdin I used for reading due to brightness. The sad truth is I chose to do this at age 24 until age 30. I can't blame this on my folks, it was all my doing.
Somehow the East Texas visits to my great aunt that lived like she was poor and loved basic living, wasn't a bad memory and I sought the happiness she got from basic living. She did serve opossum once and squirrel another, but fried Cottontail was more common. We usually had chicken and occasionally canned goat, but eggs, home baked bread, veggies out the wazoo, and goat milk was a daily thing. She had a large pond so, channel catfish was also at least once a week. Oh, I almost forgot, bullfrog legs. They were the best! I would shoot them and her little Cocker Spaniel would wade out and bring them in.
Anyway I feel at home here with all you former hillbillies.
When I was a kid, our vacations were spent in an old tiny Trotwood trailer meant to sleep 3 that my dad converted to sleep 6. The overflow siblings slept in a tent. When we lived in Indiana, he parked the thing for the season at Muskegon State Park at Lake Michigan. When we moved to Virginia, he parked it at a campground close to Assateague Island across the bay from Ocean City Maryland. It was there I would go crabbing every time the tide was coming in (chicken necks+string+sinkers.) We also used to clam using garden rakes. We would drag the rakes across the sand in the shallows. When you heard/felt them scrape, you reached down and grabbed a clam. I never liked clams very much, but I love oysters in every way they are served (raw, steamed, smoked and fried.)
There are lots of jurisdictions where anyone can perform a marriage ceremony. In my county, you have to notify them in some way so the marriage gets legally recorded. I forget exactly what the process is or who has to do it. In other places you must be a minister/priest with an active congregation, not just a paper one as I am.
I thought we did have common law marriage but it has to be for 7 years and first hubby died before that.
I miss the days when men and women wore hats.
